Beam sweeping with slot aggregation

Abstract

Methods and systems include beamformed wireless communications to and from a user equipment electronic device. During operation of the user equipment electronic device, a change in slot aggregation is made. Using the aggregated slots, the user equipment electronic device and/or a wireless network utilize beam sweeps to determine a best beam pairing by repeating a shared channel in the aggregated slots with a beam sweep of multiple beams between the user equipment electronic device and the wireless network.

1 - 20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . A method, comprising:
 indicating, using a first radio resource control (RRC) information element (IE), to use link aggregation;   indicating, using a second RRC IE, a number of beams to use over aggregated slots during the link aggregation;   configuring, using a third RRC IE, a beam pattern; and   communicating using the beam pattern.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the link aggregation comprises uplink aggregation. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the link aggregation comprises downlink aggregation. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the beams comprise beams of a user equipment (UE) device. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) is transmitted over one or more beams when the first RRC IE indicates that the link aggregation is used. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 21 , comprising indicating, using a fourth RRC IE, a bitmap of repetition of the beams. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) is transmitted over one or more beams when the first RRC IE indicates that the link aggregation is used. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein the one or more beams are received at one or more panels of a user equipment (UE) device. 
     
     
         29 . A method, comprising:
 defining a number of transmission configuration indicator (TCI) fields in downlink control information (DCI) indicating a number of beams to be used over a number of aggregated slots indicated using radio resource control (RRC) signaling;   configuring, using a RRC information element (IE), a beam pattern; and   using the DCI, communicating using the beam pattern over the aggregated slots.   
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 29 , wherein at least one of the TCI fields indicates a TCI state corresponding to two or more beams used over the aggregated slots. 
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 29 , wherein the number of TCI fields is the same as the number of beams used over the aggregated slots. 
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 29 , comprising using a defined physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) preparation procedure time after the DCI before utilizing a multi-slot PDSCH. 
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 29 , comprising indicating, using a second RRC IE, a bitmap of repetition of the beams. 
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 29 , comprising configuring, using a media access control element (MAC CE), enabling or disabling of the beam pattern. 
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 29 , wherein the beam pattern defines a receiving beam to be used in each of the aggregated slots. 
     
     
         36 . An electronic device, comprising:
 one or more antenna arrays configured to transmit wireless communication signals to a node of a wireless network;   a processor; and   memory storing instructions, that when executed by the processor, are configured to cause the processor to:
 indicate, using a first radio resource control (RRC) information element (IE), to use link aggregation; 
 indicate, using a second RRC IE, a number of beams to use over aggregated slots during the link aggregation; 
 configure, using a third RRC IE, a beam pattern; and 
 communicate using the beam pattern via the one or more antenna arrays. 
   
     
     
         37 . The electronic device of  claim 36 , wherein the link aggregation comprises downlink aggregation, and the beam pattern defines a receiving beam to be used in each of the aggregated slots. 
     
     
         38 . The electronic device of  claim 36 , the instructions further configured to cause the processor to indicate that beam sweeping is to be disabled when using the beams. 
     
     
         39 . The electronic device of  claim 38 , the beams comprising receiving beams of the electronic device, and the beams comprising a spatial quasi-colocation (QCL). 
     
     
         40 . The electronic device of  claim 36 , the instructions further configured to cause the processor to indicate, using a fourth RRC IE, a bitmap of repetition of the beams.